A DECISION on the allotment of additional funds to the Gorkha Territorial Administration is expected to be taken up at a review meeting here on May 24.

A joint secretary of the Union Home Ministry is expected to represent the Centre and the state will be represented by Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) general secretary Roshan Giri said here on Thursday.

The review meeting is important as the Morcha has demanded Rs 575 crore from both the state government and the Centre as one-time grant for administrative infrastructure of the GTA,the council which runs the administration in the hills. The demand for the funds for infrastructure was earlier placed at a meeting between a Morcha delegation and Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra in Kolkata on April 30.

Mitra had then suggested that the matter could be taken up at the review meeting as the Centre,too,had to share the cost of setting up infrastructure. Apart from the grant of Rs 575 crore,we are also looking towards getting some assurances on increasing the annual grant of the GTA from Rs 200 crore to Rs 400 crore for the next three years, Giri said.